Now, a few days after the calamity that befell Jericho, Joshua sent
three thousand armed men to take Ai, a city situate above Jericho; but,
upon the sight of the people of Ai, with them they were driven back, and
lost thirty-six of their men. When this was told the Israelites, it made
them very sad, and exceeding disconsolate, not so much because of the relation
the men that were destroyed bare to them, though those that were destroyed
were all good men, and deserved their esteem, as by the despair it occasioned;
for while they believed that they were already, in effect, in possession
of the land, and should bring back the army out of the battles without
loss, as God had promised beforehand, they now saw unexpectedly their enemies
bold with success; so they put sackcloth over their garments, and continued
in tears and lamentation all the day, without the least inquiry after food,
but laid what had happened greatly to heart.